Pretty Flower
by Celianna
Summary: The blond blacksmith sat down on her couch and got right back up, forgetting his clothes were wet from the storm. “I think I wetted your couch…” Claire looked at him wide eyed; “You peed on my couch?” Welcome to a world of awkward situations.
1. Pretty Flower

**Pretty Flower**

**Summary: **The blond blacksmith sat down on her couch and got right back up, forgetting his clothes were wet from the storm. "I think I wetted your couch…" Claire looked at him wide eyed; "You peed on my couch!?" Welcome to a world of awkward situations.

**A/N:** This is Claire's point of view during my other story, Pretty Ore. You don't have to read Pretty Ore to know what is going on, as I will write everything from the beginning. I would however, advise you to go read the story Pretty Ore first, or even view my animations on YouTube (just type in 'Pretty Ore' on YouTube, you'll definitely find them).

The summary might make it seem like this is a comedy story, I assure you it's not. It's a story of awkwardness and overcoming obstacles. The awkwardness might seem funny to some though.

**Disclaimer:** No copyright infringement intended, I claim fair use!

**Chapter 1 – **_**Pretty Flower**_

**--**

It was horrible. There were dead weeds all over the place, cluttering the big field. There were rocks scattered about, along with some tree branches, as if someone purposely placed them there. Everything was just laughing at her; they were all plotting together to make her life even worse than it already was. How in the world did she sign up for this dump? The ad said it was a nice, livable farm. There was nothing nice about the weed that was the size of a small tree, or the rocks that looked like a giant mushroom. Absolutely _nothing_ was nice about this scene; it was utter chaos. Yet, she bought it. She bought the farm, along with the ugly field of weeds. It's not like she could just go back to her old life, no – she already sold her own apartment so she could enjoy the farm life! This just wasn't the farm life she was hoping for; she was kind of hoping for singing birds and colourful flowers. Like in Snow White, except there are no seven dwarfs.

Claire sighed loudly as she dropped herself on the grass, staring emptily at her field. Of all the things she was expecting, she wasn't expecting to be put up with a farm that looked like a bunch of bulls wrecked the place and no one cared enough about it to clean it up. Not only was the farm utterly disgusting to her; she also had no more money left! She spent all of her savings just to buy this place, so now she was dirt poor. Claire had to figure out a way to make money fast, as she needed to buy food for herself.

The girl lied down in the grass, thinking of options she had to earn some money. She could apply for a part-time job while she cleaned her field to make it workable. That didn't sound that great to her, she didn't want to work twice as hard just to get by; no, she was way too lazy for that.

The blonde girl got up and started walking around her farm, noticing that there was a pathway leading from her farm to some place she hadn't been yet. Claire, curious and bored, skipped along the path to discover what was behind her farm. A nagging feeling in Claire's mind told her she should stop being such a procrastinator and start working on her farm, but she blissfully ignored that voice. The path lead her out to a clearing, with a few trees here and there. Claire followed the path and finally arrived at something that was interesting. It was a hot spring, and it seemed it was in pretty bad shape, like no one actually took care of it. The girl shrugged and walked over to the little pond across it. Her blue eyes stared at the waterfall, feeling a little less stressed about her situation now that she was looking at a calm waterfall.

It was then that she noticed the big hole in the rocky mountain. Curiosity got the best of her when she saw there was a small light coming from the inside. What could it be? Was it some sort of mine? Claire walked over to the entrance and peered inside; she vaguely wondered if coyote's would be sleeping in there. She couldn't see much, as the dim light could only do so much. She walked into the cave, finding it quite eerie and creepy. The ground was soft, but had a few rocks sticking out of it. There were wooden bars supporting the cave, and they went deeper into the cave as Claire walked through it, trying to find the source of that light.

"Hah!"

The sudden voice made Claire almost jump out of her own skin; her heart was beating fast and unsteady. Thinking it was a coyote at first, she quickly hid behind one of the wooden bars to look over to where the noise came from. There, not far from herself, was the source of the light. It was a little old fashioned lantern sitting on a rock. The owner of the lantern stood not too far from it. Clad in beige work clothes, the man held a hammer in his hand while panting hard. Claire mentally smacked herself, finding it silly she thought this man was a coyote at first. The man lifted up his silver hammer and brought it down on the rock which was already crumbling. The sound of the hammer making contact with the rock was almost deafening, it was _that_ loud.

"Ha …" he panted loudly while he wiped off some sweat of his forehead with his sleeve. Claire noticed the unusual blue cap he was wearing, with letters on them. Before she could read what they said, the man lifted up his hammer once more to smash the rock.

"Come on!" he yelled at it. Once more, he smashed the hammer against the rock, but it just wasn't crumbling anymore. He didn't give up though; he smashed it again and again, and even kicked the rock with his shoe, which earned the rock a few curse words.

Claire felt bad for this stranger; he was trying his best to get whatever was on the inside of the rock. It made her feel guilty, to know she was lazing off while another person worked hard to get what he wanted. She knew she couldn't avoid having to clean up her farm, but it was so much work that she felt depressed even thinking about it. Did she really have to return to that crappy farm and face reality? Claire shook her head; nah – she could just stare at this stranger working hard, as if he were working hard _for_ her!

"Aha!" Sounded the triumph word coming from the man. In his hand, he held a small lump of silver substance. Claire figured it was a silver ore.

It took her a while to realize the significance of this; this mine was filled with silver, and who knows what else! Claire's heart skipped around with joy; she could just mine the silver out of this mine and sell it for some easy cash. Now she didn't have to worry about being poor anymore, all she needed was a hammer and a rock, then everything else should be easy. If that man could mine some silver, then she could too! Claire quickly left the mine to go back home, where there was a toolbox that had an old hammer in it. She knew that rusty old hammer that came with the farm might come in handy. Happily, she took it out and went back to the mine.

When she arrived, she realized that the stranger wasn't there anymore, and neither was the source of light. Claire groaned inside herself, smacking her head when she realized she didn't have a flashlight while standing inside of a very dark cave. She went back to her home to search for a flashlight.

There was a long day ahead of her.

A day had passed and Claire had fallen asleep on her old bed. Yesterday, she had managed to get one lump of copper, which really took hours for her to get. How did that guy made it seem so easy? All he did was smash it a few times, and poof, out rolled the silver ore. Claire had to smash it over a hundred times, kick it, hit it, slap it – anything she could think of, when she finally managed to pry it out with her hands. Right now, her fingers felt sore, not to mention her muscles were aching in her whole body. Maybe she wasn't fit to be a miner, as she had little to no strength. This just made her think how unfit she was to run this damaged farm. Claire sighed inside of her pillow an rolled over to get out of her bed.

A growl from her stomach indicated that she was very, very hungry. She hadn't eaten anything after she went on her little road trip to Mineral Town. Meaning, today she was very hungry and needed food very badly. Claire sighed when she realized the refrigerator was empty, as she had to throw all food away because it would go bad during her road trip. How was she going to eat now? She had no money, all she had was a lump of copper.

Claire thought to herself; how was she going to sell this thing anyway? Maybe she was lucky and there was a jewelry store around here, or maybe a flea market of some sorts. Anything that would accept materials and would actually pay her for it. Without any hesitation, Claire walked out of her new home, determined to sell that lump of copper. With the copper safely tucked away in her orange backpack, Claire walked out of her farm and followed the road. It didn't take long until she saw a building with smoke coming out of it. A sign was nailed to the building, reading; BLACKSMITH. Claire could jump around for joy; she couldn't be any luckier! There was a Blacksmith right around the corner!

The blonde pushed the door open, and heard a bell ring twice to alert the arrival of a new costumer. Smoke filled her nostrils and Claire scrunched up her nose; not really liking this smell. In front of her was a small counter, it was dirty and stained with grease marks. Behind it was an old looking man. He looked quite intimidating with his tiny little eyes as he stared her down. Claire gulped, wondering if this was such a good idea in the first place.

"Hello, are you new here?" he said with a voice that sounded much nicer than he looked like.

Claire stepped towards the counter, feeling his eyes following her every movement, it was making her nervous.

"Yes, I'm the new owner of the farm," she said, admiring her own courage for talking to such an intimidating man. "My name is Claire."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Saibara, the blacksmith. Did you come to buy anything?"

Claire swallowed, now she had to explain to him that she wasn't some costumer he could earn money off. No, she wanted to make money off of _him_. Which didn't seem that plausible anymore. How could that grumpy old looking man ever accept her silly copper ore in exchange for money? Maybe it wasn't too late to get out of here. Then again, the creepy stare of the old man rooted Claire to the ground. She smiled at him nervously.

"Actually … I thought you could buy something from me."

There was something moving in the corner of her eye that made her look behind the old man. A much younger man, clad in the same beige clothes she had seen yesterday, was secretly pushing away shattered pieces of glass into his hand. Swiftly, he put them in his pants, while pretending no one saw it. Claire recognized that this was the same person she had seen yesterday in the mine.

"And what would that be?" asked the old man. He lowered his bushy grey eyebrows at her.

Claire quickly took out her lump of copper and placed it on the counter.

"Oho! I see, I see," said Saibara enthusiastically. He started to examine every little detail in the copper ore, propping a little microscope in his eye to aid him with his scrutinizing. He twisted and turned the copper around, scanning the whole surface of it. He then proceeded to hit it with a small iron bar, to listen to the sound it was making.

The whole examination was making Claire even more nervous than she already was. "O-okay, enough examining, it's real. I just wanted to know if you would buy it from me."

Saibara gave a deep, long grunt, pondering his options. "Normally my grandson does these things – but he always messes up – so yes, I would like to buy this from you. Would you be interested in delivering me these every day?"

Claire could have screamed for joy when she heard he would buy the copper from her. Not only that, he actually offered to buy it from her every single day! This way she could easily earn money to renovate her farm, and of course, pay for her food she so desperately needed. However, her joy was short lived, as she was pushed out of the way by someone who was much stronger than her. Claire stumbled about and jerked her head to glare at the person who shoved her. It was the stranger from the mine.

"What!?" the guy yelled, his blue eyes fiercely glaring at the old man.

"Gray, you shall not hurt the costume-"

"Why do you link every conversation to me!? Why must you always criticize me for every little thing that I do – I wasn't even part of the conversation!"

He slammed his hand down on the desk, which made Claire jump. So this was the guy that she kind of looked up to, because he could mine so much more easier than she could? This was just a really angry guy, a guy who shoved her out of his way no less. Claire kept her mouth shut as the two continued to bicker back and forth.

"I'm leaving!" The guy with the cap stormed out of the blacksmith, loudly smashing the door into the wall.

"Don't mind him, that's just my grandson Gray. He tends to screw things up." The old man took a deep breath.

"So, I'll give you 30 dollars for this copper ore. You can bring me any other ore, as long as it's either copper, silver, gold or even mystrile. I expect you to come here every day to deliver them to me." His voice was so stern and strict, that Claire couldn't possibly say no to this man. Not after she witnessed how he could easily flip off his own grandson without caring about it at all.

Claire quickly nodded and took the cash from the man, then quickly left the Blacksmith. While she stood on the red bricked path, she caught a glimpse of Saibara's grandson walking away. Claire stared at the bricks on the ground, feeling kind of sorry for him. She knew he had successfully mined a silver ore yesterday, so she didn't know why the old guy said he would screw up. All she could do was spend hours trying to get a copper ore loose from a rock. Maybe she could get some tips from him or something. Then, for some reason, her feet started to walk towards the direction he left in. Claire didn't know why, but she wanted to talk to this guy. He seemed interesting to her, yet dangerous. Claire thought about a few moments ago, when he easily shoved her aside. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to talk to a man who pushed strangers out of his path.

Claire's feet stopped when she saw this Gray person stand in front of a big board. They were standing in a big town's square, with benches placed along the green hedges. Out of nowhere, he punched the board with his bare fist, not even flinching at the pain he got upon impact. Claire was slightly backing up, finding this an extremely angered man. It was then that she noticed that he took something out of his pocket. Whatever it was, he threw it on the ground. It sounded like glass, it was that same glass he hid in his pocket when she stepped inside of the Blacksmith.

"You shouldn't litter the place like that." Claire had no idea what made her speak up, it just kind of came out like a reflex when she saw him littering the ground.

He turned around to face her, and Claire saw his angered blue eyes staring down at her. She could see a glimpse of his blond hair before he quickly hid his face underneath his blue cap when he realized that it was her. They stood in the same spot while an awkward silence stretched through the air.

"Are you looking for an apology?" he asked softly, refusing to look her in the eye. Claire said nothing, but rose her eyebrow instead.

"I … I'm sorry I pushed you earlier," he said in a low voice, almost as if he were mumbling.

Claire gave him a small smile; recognizing the awkwardness of his apology. She knew what it felt like to stand in that spot and apologize to people.

"You're the new one, right? The one from the farm?"

Claire casted her eyes downward, thinking about her bad looking farm, which she hadn't done a thing about yet.

"Yes I am…" she said shyly, feeling embarrassed that everyone was recognizing her as the new farmer who's farm looked like crap.

He tipped his cap towards her. "The name's Gray."

"Claire."

"It's nice to meet you, but I have to go back to work now. See yah."

Gray, the blacksmith, left the town's square. Claire stayed behind and stared at the glass pieces laying on the ground. Suddenly, it started to rain, drenching Claire with water. For the moment, she didn't care, she was too hungry to move quickly out of the rain, so she opted to stare at the glass pieces disappear into the drain one by one. Her hair became wet and stuck to her face. The girl merely shrugged and started to walk.

It's time to buy some food.


	2. Mild Admiration

**Pretty Flower**

**A/N:** There's a reason why I named this story Pretty Flower. It's the same reason why I named my other story Pretty Ore. Both are used as plot devices in the actual story to make the character realize they have feelings for the other person. Gray's plot device was an ore, Claire's plot device will be a flower.

**Chapter 2 – _Mild Admiration_**

**--**

Striking the deal with the Blacksmith was the best thing Claire could have done for her financial life. Not only did it give her enough money to buy food that would last for at least a week, Claire had enough money to buy some seeds to plant them on her farm. Of course, it took her a while to clean up her farm enough to actually grow crops on it. The farm still looked like crap – in her opinion – but at least it had stuff growing on it, which made the blonde girl feel a little proud of herself. She also bought two chickens from the poultry farm (she hoped to never come across that Rick person again), which didn't really go that well. They were vile, evil creatures, always pecking at her ankles whenever she walked into the chicken coop.

Claire admitted though; she was almost ready to fall into depression after she bought the farm. She was lost, stuck with an abandoned farm and had no money. All hope was almost lost, but she regained that little spark of hope when she struck that deal. It wasn't just because she would get the money to buy food – no, it was also because of the apprentice blacksmith that worked there. She had silently observed him while going there every day. He was very hard working, and it gave Claire someone to look up to; someone to boost up her confidence.

It was almost silly really; why would some random guy she barely knew boost up her confidence? Maybe it was because she pitied him a little, she found it quite sad how it was almost every single day that he would get yelled at by Saibara. His grandfather would scold him all the time for just a silly little reason, which in turn made the apprentice named Gray get hotheaded and call his grandfather names, then refused to work any longer. Claire observed this almost every day; Gray would quietly be working in the background, until something broke, Saibara would yell at him and Gray would walk out of the Blacksmith.

What was admirable was his ability to walk _back _into that Blacksmith every morning, even though he got scrutinized by his gramps almost every single day. It was this trait, that made Claire cheer for him on the inside, and it's what made her not give up on her farm either. If this guy, someone who barely spoke and got scolded on all the time, refused to give up on what he was doing – why would she give up on her farm? This amazing guy was making her look like a bad, lazy farmer. He would walk back into that same room every single day, even if he knew it wasn't going to be a good day. All she could do was lay down in bed and moan about how awful her life was, but it wasn't like that anymore. Claire found confidence in this guy's stubborn attitude. It was strange and silly, and also not really rational – but Claire didn't care. Secretly, she admired him, and it gave her enough confidence to renovate the farm.

Returning to the Blacksmith every day was easy for Claire; she was eager to see how the apprentice was faring with his work. So Claire worked hard on getting those ores from the mine; so she could get the money and see him again. Sometimes she felt a little lazy and got some extra ores on the same day, so that she could save them for the next day in case she didn't feel like mining that day. Today, she was ready for yet another trip to the Blacksmith to pick up her cash, and to see how Gray was doing.

Claire entered the Blacksmith, hearing the familiar bell go off that was attached to the door. Saibara grunted a small 'hello', while Gray continued to ignore her. While she was happy to see him a little, lately Gray wouldn't even acknowledge her and would simply ignore her. It bothered Claire a little, but only because she wasn't really friends with him enough to care.

"Good morning, Saibara," greeted Claire. She took out a small lump of copper from her backpack and placed it on the counter. Saibara bent down to examine it.

"Good work, Claire." Saibara took out some money from the register and gave it to Claire, who happily took it from his hand.

Saibara grabbed the ore, and proceeded to throw it in Gray's general direction. "Head's up boy, incoming copper ore." Gray didn't turn around to catch it in time, and instead got hit in the arm. The blond merely rubbed his arm and glared daggers into his grandfather's skull, but said nothing and took the ore from the ground to carelessly throw it into the hot, smoldering forge.

"You wouldn't get hit in the arm if you did your own mining," said Saibara with his usual snarkiness aimed towards Gray.

Claire silently shuffled out of the Blacksmith, not wanting to become another victim by standing in the line of fire of flying copper ores like last time. She quickly walked away from the Blacksmith, and proceeded to make her way towards her own farm. Entering inside of her own home, Claire checked her shelf for any ores she had left. A grim expression covered her face; she sold the last one to Saibara today already. Which means she had to mine some ores again today. Feeling too lazy to do it right away, Claire spent some time checking on her crops, making sure they weren't dying from insects eating the plants. After a few hours of lazing around doing nothing, Claire decided to grab her hammer to start doing her job.

When she arrived at the entrance of the mine, she was surprised to see that there was a slight glow coming from the inside of the mine. Curious to who could be in there right now, Claire entered the mine, following the slight shimmer of light. Loud smashing sounds could be heard as they traveled as an echo to her ears. Claire edged closer towards the light source, and finally saw that it was Gray who was mining. Without breaking a sweat, he lifted his hammer and then slammed it down onto the rock, which was already almost pummeled to death. Claire's admiration of him rose when she saw how good he was with mining; she couldn't possibly do that. Her strength sucked compared to his, plus he seemed to really know which places to hit so the rock would crumble much faster without much effort. For a few minutes, Claire quietly observed him as he worked his way through rock after rock. After five minutes, Claire questioned his reasons for coming here; was he going to mine his own ores now? Saibara did hint at Gray that he should get his own ores from now on. Did that mean she was useless now? Did they still need her to mine some ores and bring it to them every day?

Fear covered her face when she realized her only source of money income could be terminated. If Gray mined his own ores, there was no need for her – so she would lose the money she needed to buy food. Claire let out a small gasp, which alerted the man who was mining in peace. Claire covered her own mouth when she realized she must look like a stalker now; having watched him for the past five minutes in silence. She saw him lift up his lantern to get a good look at her, which made Claire panic. So instead of doing the normal thing and apologize, she fled the mine. What was wrong with her? She suddenly ran out of the mine for no reason, other than being afraid of getting caught. Claire frowned at herself; it's not like she wanted to spy on him or something, so she shouldn't be so jumpy around him.

"Oh, it's you." A voice sounded from behind her. Claire jumped a little (despite saying before she shouldn't be jumpy) and turned around to face the miner. As always, his blue cap covered too much of his face to even see if he was looking at her.

Claire shuffled on her spot; did he see her spy on him? Was she going to lose her temporary job? Before she knew it, she voiced her concerns, "am I not needed to mine ores anymore?" she asked in a small voice.

He tilted up his head, ever so slightly, so she could see a small glimpse of his blue eyes staring at her. His face turned away from her again. "No… I'm just mining for fun," he said awkwardly. Claire nodded at his response.

"I'm sorry if I startled you in there," said Claire, attempting to make small talk, and to apologize for her outrageous stalker behavior.

"Uh, that's alright. Well, uhm, I need to go now. See yah." Gray quickly left the scene, as if he was running away from an awkward conversation.

Claire smiled at herself in a pitiful way; was she already making people awkward around her? She dragged her hammer on the ground while she entered the mine again, ready to pound away on some rocks and forget about her paranoid thoughts. She placed her flashlight on a rock, so it would help her see in the dark mine, then started to swing the hammer on a rock.

She was disappointed to see how bad she was at this compared to Gray. After three swings already, she slowly started to breathe faster and her heart was pounding fast. Sweat started to form at only seven swings – and that damn rock hadn't even so much as broken off a splinter. Her hands started to hurt after ten swings, because the vibrations kept coursing through her body, starting in her hands. Claire sighed and wiped off some sweat from her forehead; she just _had _to keep on going. Gray made everything look so easy, yet when she was doing it herself she couldn't even get a crack in the rock. Frustrated, Claire swung the hammer sideways, causing the rock to crack in the middle. The blonde girl blinked, then did a little happy dance, happy she was achieving something. Then, behind her, she heard a sound. It sounded like someone was in there. Claire whirled around, dropping her hammer in the process.

"H-hello?" Claire whimpered out, she was scared that it might be a coyote entering the mine or something. Then she thought that it might be Gray, maybe he had come back because he forgot something.

"Gray? I-is that you?" she called out. No answer.

She heard anther frightening sound of something moving around in the mine, so her instincts got the better of her. She grabbed the nearest small rock and threw it in the general direction that the sound came from. It earned her a loud and deep sounding '_oof!_', followed by a big '_splat_'.

Claire's blue eyes grew bigger once she shone her flashlight on the stranger; it was Gray, who was laying face-down in the dirt. Hurriedly, she rushed over to him and bent down on her knees to look at him. Gray finally lifted up his head, his blue eyes now staring into her own. His cap had fallen from his head, which gave her a clear view of his forehead. Claire's stomach started to turn into knots when she saw the big bruise on his forehead.

"I'm so sorry, Gray!" She reached out her hand to touch his forehead and managed to brush his blond bangs away before he quickly got up to regain his posture.

"I thought you were a coyote or something," she quickly explained. "I'm so sorry I threw a rock at you!"

Gray's finger touched the bruise on his forehead, winching at the pain. "Do I _look_ like a coyote to you!?" he snapped at her.

"I'm so sorry…" said Claire sadly. "I'm sorry I injured you…"

"Well, at least my cap cushioned most of the blow," he said in a snarky response, as his head looked around for his cap that fell off his head.

Claire, ridded with guilt, picked up his cap that was near her feet. She humbly offered it to him, and he snatched it from her hands then placed it firmly on his head again.

"I'm sorry," she said once more, her ugly apologizing trait rearing its head.

Gray merely rubbed his forehead once more before he walked out of the mine, ignoring Claire's apologizing.

The girl stood in the mine, leaning against a big rock for support. It never even crossed her mind to think why Gray would be back in the mine. She just couldn't believe that she threw that rock at him, and also hurt him! Claire just couldn't stop apologizing for her mistake; which is something that she was trying to hold back. Claire knew she apologized too much, but this time, she couldn't help it. She actually physically hurt him. Claire felt guilt wrecked and exited the mine to walk towards the Blacksmith. She wanted to see how Gray was doing, and apologize once more. She pushed the door open, hearing the bell ring once more.

"Hello there, Claire. It's unusual for you to come back a second time."

Claire looked around, no sign of Gray, even though she knew he was off work. She didn't know where he lived though. She walked up towards the counter and blushed a little when she realized she was about to ask Saibara where his grandson lived, so that she could apologize to him. He wouldn't get the wrong idea, right? Just by looking at the old man made Claire feel shivers run down her spine; he just looked way too creepy!

"Uhm, do you know where Gray is?" Claire asked shyly.

Saibara didn't even flinch at the question, nor did he blink. "Hmm, I think he's just at the Inn again, wasting away his day."

"Where is this Inn?"

"Oh, just take a right once you exit here, then another right, keep going up and then go right – you'll see a big building with a sign that says 'Inn'. You won't have a problem finding it."

"Alright, thanks a lot, Saibara."

Claire exited the Blacksmith, glad she was away from that intimidating old man. So Gray lived in an Inn, that was quite unusual. She figured he lived with his grandfather or something, not stay at some hotel. Claire followed the directions Saibara gave her and finally found the big Inn. She entered and was greeted by an energetic orange haired girl.

"Welcome! I know who you are! You're the new farmer, right?" she asked happily, smiling at Claire.

"Uhh, yeah. I'm Claire," answered Claire.

"Well, my name is Ann! I work here, so if you need anything, just ask!"

Claire was about to walk away when she turned around to face the girl. Well, there was something she could ask of this Ann person. "Do you know in which room Gray, the one from the Blacksmith, stays in?"

Ann giggled. "We only have two rooms, one for boys, one for girls, so it won't be hard finding his room. Go upstairs and look for the boy's sign on the door – you can't miss it."

Claire nodded her head at Ann. "Thanks," she said and slowly walked up the stone stairs.

She began to wonder what in the world she was really doing. She went out of her lazy ass's way to actually ask around where this Gray person lives, so that she could apologize to him for throwing a rock at his head. Yeah, it made perfect sense! Claire sighed in herself and walked through the hallway, passing a door with the 'female' sign on it. So what exactly was she going to say once he opened the door? Saying sorry once more would just make her seem even more pathetic, so she had to try to avoid saying that. Claire swallowed when she stopped at the boy's door. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

"Ann? I-is that you?" asked a small voice from the inside. The door opened up just by a bit, enough to see the big brown eyes staring at her. Those were certainly not the blue eyes from the blond Blacksmith.

"Uhm," said Claire awkwardly, not knowing that Gray shared his room with other guys. "Is Gray there?"

"..yes…"

"Can I speak to him?"

The door closed abruptly, making Claire think that this stranger was ignoring her. She blinked a couple of times at the door, waiting for it to open, then decided she should knock again. Before her knuckles reached the wooden door, it opened again. In the doorway stood Gray, or at least, half-attempted to stand in the doorway. He was kind of leaning against the frame to support his weight. His eyes were half open and his short blond hair was a mess. His beige outfit was half unbuttoned, showing his brown, wrinkled tie. Obviously, he was asleep before. Underneath his messy hair, Claire noticed, was a big red bump on his forehead. She cringed at the sight of it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were asleep," she said, apologizing already, even though she tried to not apologize so quickly.

Gray rubbed his eyes and yawned. "What do you want?" he asked in a grumpy way.

Claire shifted her eyes away from him. "I want to apologize for throwing that rock at you."

"Apology accepted, now good night." Gray started to close the door again. Claire quickly held it open with her hand, not believing he wasn't taking this serious at all.

"I really am sorry!" she said with more veracity in her voice.

Gray's eyes lazily looked over to her hand, and back to her face. It was the first time he looked directly into her eyes, without shifting his look away, or doing it on accident. His eyes studied her for a while, making Claire feel uncomfortable. He then stood up straight and pushed her hand off the door.

"You say sorry too much." He closed the door.

Claire stood there, flabbergasted that he noticed her horrible quality so fast already. Did he _have_ to make it that obvious that she said sorry too much? She knew she said it too much; it was some sort of habit. One she couldn't seem to get out of, one that seemed to make people avoid her at all costs, just like how Gray noticed she apologized too much and closed the door on her. Her eyes started to water just a little, but she tried to hold it back. She started to walk away from the door, but not before giving it a glance and muttering, "I'm sorry."


	3. Blooming Friendship

**Pretty Flower**

**A/N: **Eh I forgot I had this chapter written already, so I'm just uploading it. I'm way too busy with my game, Tailor Tales to write more.

**Chapter 3 – **_**Blooming Friendship**_

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After the incident which consisted of Claire throwing a rock at the Blacksmith's head, Claire vowed to get up early so that she could work her ass off – as repayment for what she did to the young man the day before. She knew that this wouldn't accomplish anything, as Gray had no idea what she did during the day, but it kind of made her feel better. It was kind of like a punishment for being so annoyingly stupid, so the blonde girl was fine with getting up earlier just so she could work on her farm. While she regarded this as 'punishment', it actually made her get off her lazy ass to make her farm look a lot better.

She watered her crops, which was an easy task. The girl then walked over to her new chicken coop, ready to face the evil chickens that she got a few days ago. Claire nervously hummed a song to calm her down, then opened the doors and was greeted by a bunch of cackling noises. Two chickens were running around, flapping their wings and making noises – as if they were _growling_ at her. She got some food from the food dispenser and quickly threw it on the ground. The chicken flocked towards the food and started pecking at it. Claire quietly left the chicken coop, knowing that if they weren't distracted by food, they would peck at _her_, something which she had learned from the day she bought the chickens. Claire closed the doors and sighed.

"Evil chickens," she muttered under her breath.

Claire was now ready to go to the mine and work hard. She entered her house real fast to grab her hammer and walked towards the mine.

When she arrived, it seemed there was someone already in there, as there was light coming from the inside out. Claire thought of Gray immediately, which made her feel guilty again. She slowly entered the mine, making sure she dragged her feet along the dirt floor quite loudly, so that he would be alerted that she was in there. There he was, standing in his hard-working glory and manly sweat, while pounding down a hammer on a rock. He stiffened his posture when his eyes noticed Claire walking towards him. The rock was left alone while Gray stared at Claire, as if he was waiting for her to say something.

"Uhm, I didn't know you were here again," she said quietly, but her voice echoed quite loudly in the mine.

Gray whipped his head around to continue smashing the rock, ignoring the blonde girl. It made Claire think the worse; was she really not needed to mine ores anymore? He seemed to be doing all the work now – plus he was _way _better and more efficient at this than her. If she really wasn't needed anymore, she wouldn't get her steady income of cash – which means no more food! Claire shook her head to clear her thoughts, and figured she should just ask again.

"Am I still needed to mine ores? I keep seeing you mine on your own …"

The blond boy stopped what he was doing, then swung the large hammer on his shoulder – something which made him look utterly cool just because he could do it so easily – and cocked his head at her. He still didn't look her in the eye though, which was annoying to her for some reason. He cleared his throat to speak up.

"Really, I'm just doing this because I want to. Your job isn't in any danger."

A smile appeared on Claire's face; relieved that she still had this part-time job to earn herself lots of money. The girl walked closer to him, avoiding a few crumbled rocks that were laying in the dirty ground. She turned on her flashlight and placed it on a rock so give them both more light, after all, he was only using an old fashioned lantern which wasn't doing that much.

Claire shuffled on her spot, holding her hammer quite nervously. "Can I join you?" she asked. For some reason, she really wanted to befriend him. He seemed like he could give her some great tips on mining, and he looked like an honest, hard-working man.

A loud smashing sound echoed throughout the mine before he stopped to stare at the ground again. He lifted up his shoulders to shrug. "Sure," he said.

Before Claire even started to mine, she stared at Gray for a while. She could still see the big, red bump on his forehead that was caused by her. He tried to hide this by pulling down his cap down even more once he realized he was being stared at by Claire. She felt compelled to ask him how he was doing.

"Does it hurt?"

Gray stopped slamming his hammer. "Huh?"

"Your head, I mean – does it hurt?"

Gray grunted deeply, then shook his head. "It's fine."

Claire felt the need to say 'I'm sorry' one more time, but forced her own mouth shut so she wouldn't accidentally blurt it out. So instead, she joined Gray with his mining. Together they mined in silence, with Gray getting a lot more work done than she was. His rock cracked open, showing dirty gold on the inside. Claire felt jealous that he was so good at this – she wanted to become good at this too. The Blacksmith grinned at his own talent, then he carelessly threw the golden ores in his backpack, as if it were no big deal. Claire sighed in herself, trying to ignore his awesome mining talent to focus on her own mining.

Her blue eyes studied him carefully, while still remaining focused on slamming her hammer on the rock. Gray stopped for a second to take off his cap – showing how huge the red bump on his head really was – to wipe off some sweat. Claire felt so guilty, that she almost couldn't hold herself back to say 'I'm sorry' once more. Instead, she chose this moment to address her weakest point; the ability to always apologize for everything around her.

"I-I don't always say sorry," she stuttered quietly. She wanted to explain to him that she wasn't some weird crazy nut that couldn't stop apologizing for her behavior. She wanted to seem like a human being – so that she wouldn't chase him away like she did with all her other friends.

"I know I say it too much, but right now, I can't help it." Yeah, that sounded like a good explanation of her feelings. Then again, why would he even care?

Gray didn't respond, it almost looked like he didn't even hear her say anything. Claire was about to repeat herself when she heard him huff quietly.

"Maybe you could teach me some things then," he said, avoiding to look her in the eye. Claire raised an eyebrow.

"I rarely say that I'm sorry."

She didn't realize it, but for the rest of the day, she had a slight smile on her lips.

Over the past few days, Claire had been going to the mine rather eagerly, she couldn't _wait_ to get started on her mining. Of course, the biggest reason for her new motivation was that Gray gave her a few tips here and there. They had been mining together several times over the last few days, and Claire enjoyed their time together. Not only was she getting better at mining herself, she was slowly starting to be friends with Gray. Her first friend in Mineral Town.

"Alright, now swing the hammer over your head – be sure to not hit your own back," instructed Gray. Claire nodded at him and clenched the hammer in her hands.

She took a deep breath, then swung the hammer over her head – but the weight of the hammer made her come crashing down to the dirty ground. She let out a small 'ouch!' when she made contact with the ground, then she quickly picked herself up to dust off her blue overalls. Claire then pointed her finger at Gray's grinning face.

"You! You made me do that on purpose!" She poked his chest. "You big meanie!"

Gray merely shrugged and brushed away her poking finger, he picked up her hammer for her and trusted it in her arms. "It ain't my fault you lack the proper strength to hold a hammer." Then, as an afterthought, he chuckled at her, just to add to the insult.

Claire felt insulted, but she could only glare at the blond man before her. Then, she rose her eyebrows.

"Say, Gray. Why are you so good at mining anyway?" she asked, genuinely interested in why he was so damn good at it._ He_ never seemed to fall back because he swung a heavy hammer over his head. She needed to know his secret!

Shyly, he scratched his cheek and looked away from her. "I'm not that good…" he said.

She widened her eyes. "Are you kidding me? You beat the crap out of every single rock in this mine."

"It just looks like that, because you can't mine that well, so it seems as if I'm really good at it."

"Thanks for the compliment." She stuck out her tongue at him. Claire looked at her watch and saw that it was getting late.

"It's getting late, we should probably stop," said Claire and started packing everything up.

"Yeah…"

Together they exited the mine, only to be greeted by a downfall of rain. Stormy clouds covered the sky like a blanket, with rain pouring down, making Claire's field of vision rather blurry. There were bursts of lightning flashes way in the background; it was definitely storming.

"Ugh, it's raining!" exclaimed Claire, who's hair was starting to get drenched.

"Thanks for the weather report," retorted Gray, who merely pulled his cap down even more to keep his hair dry.

They started walking in silence, quickening their pace when they heard the sound of thunder getting closer to them. Claire guided Gray towards her farm, as that was the quickest route for Gray to take if he wanted to go home to the Inn. The longer they stayed outside, the more wet Claire and Gray both became. By the time she saw her field, her work clothes were now completely drenched with water, and she had dirty mud all over her pants. Her hair was also completely wet, now having a dark brown colour instead of the bright blonde she always had. It started to rain more and more, and she could hear a thunderstorm not far from here. They reached her house and Claire quickly got out her keys to open her door. She turned around to look at Gray, who was staring at the ground.

"Do you want to come in and stay until the weather clears up?" she asked.

"I should probably head back to the Inn…" spoke Gray shyly.

The rain danced around them for a moment, getting worse with each second. They were engulfing Gray's whole body, while Claire stood safely underneath her door. She rolled her blue eyes at him and grabbed his wet sleeve, pulling him inside of her home before he could walk away.

"Hey!" he yelled indignantly as Claire shut the door behind him.

"Ah come on, I can't let you walk back home in this storm – that's just insensitive."

"No really, I'm fine with it," he said then turned around to grab her doorknob and opened her door.

Just at that exact moment, a lightning bolt hit Claire's field, frying her potato in the process. Her mouth dropped open in horror at her fried potato and Gray quickly closed the door again.

"On second thought, I guess it's best if I wait it out."

Claire merely continued to stare at her door; thinking how her poor potato was now a fried potato. She then gave Gray a small smile and walked into her living room. She saw that the blond man was awkwardly standing at the doorway, keeping his distance from anything that resembled furniture. Was it that weird she invited him in her home? Maybe he hadn't been in a decent house for so long it made him feel awkward. Claire couldn't imagine having to sleep with one other guy every day. Talk about your privacy issues.

"Do you need a towel?" she asked. Claire walked over to her own bathroom to grab some towels to dry off her hair and face.

"N-no, I'm fine," he said, with his voice cracking slightly.

Claire reached for the doorknob on her bathroom door and said, "alright then."

Quickly, she picked up a towel from her rack and started to dry off her hair as much as she could; she was absolutely soaked in water. She kept one eye on the door, looking through the crack to see Gray standing in her living room. It was almost cute to see how weird he acted by being in her house. He shuffled on his spot, and looked out the window to see if the rain was slowing down. The blond then proceeded to stare at the ground. Claire chuckled a little after seeing him act so awkward in her house. Maybe he really was used to the hotel life.

"You can sit down if you want."

Gray's eyes widened and looked at the door, surprised by her sudden voice. Slowly, he made his way over to her pink couch to sit down. He patted the couch a few times before he lowered himself down. Then he got right back up again as soon as his butt touched the fabric, forgetting that his outfit was soaked with water.

"Uhm, I just wetted your couch…"

Claire threw the door open, her eyes wide. "What? You peed on my couch!?"

Gray's own blue eyes widened and began to stutter. "N-no .. I mean .. I-I made your couch wet with my pants…"

The girl pulled down her towel to cover her face; hiding away her embarrassment for even thinking this grown up guy would pee on her couch. Yeah, he totally wasn't mentioning it because his clothes were wet – no he was saying it because he peed his pants for some reason. Claire's cheeks filled up with blood, blushing furiously at her own mistake. She peeked through an opening of the towel to stare at Gray, who was staring at the ground yet again.

"Sorry…" The word flew right out of her mouth without even knowing she said it.

"I just misunderstood."

There was stretch of silence before Gray moved out of his spot to look at the window.

"Hey, the storm is moving away." He opened her door and stood outside. It was raining still, but not as much as it was before. There were also no more thunderbolts attacking her potatoes.

"I'll be fine now," he said and tipped his cap at her. "See you tomorrow."

Claire gave him a small wave before he closed the door. She then knocked her own head against the doorframe, feeling so silly that she thought that he peed his pants. With a sigh, she continued to dry herself off and headed for bed.

Her own punishment for the next day for saying 'sorry' once again, was to start cleaning up her field. It was riddled with rocks, branches, dead weeds and all other kinds of stuff that shouldn't belong in her field. The hard working Claire started with pulling out weeds in the early morning, then picking up the branches and set them aside for future use during the winter. The real trouble for her were the big rocks that were sitting on her field. Claire wondered just _how_ these rocks got on her field; did a damn tornado blew them over here or something? It was physically impossible for a rock the size of her whole body to be stuck on a farmer's field.

"Impossible," she muttered and kicked the rock with her shoe.

Claire swung her hammer once more to attempt to break the rocks into pieces small enough for her to carry in her hands to throw away. It wasn't working though; the big rock was … well – rock hard! Claire sighed and looked at the time; it was 10 AM and she needed to be at the Blacksmith! Hurriedly, she made her way over to the Blacksmith and opened the door. The all familiar 'ting ting!' ringed in her ears.

"Good morning Claire, what have you brought for me today?" asked Saibara with his usual deep sounding voice. This time however, it wasn't intimidating as usual. Claire had gotten used to the grumpy sounding voice.

She rummaged through her backpack and proudly presented him a small silver ore. "Tada!" she exclaimed. "I worked extra hard for this!"

"Oh my, you certainly did!" said Saibara, "Gray you should take Claire as an example of a person willing to work hard."

Claire mentally braced herself for the verbal insults to start – especially since it was Gray who helped her work that hard – but there were none. There was only silence. She looked at Gray's back, who then turned to face her. He tipped his cap towards her, as usual.

"Morning'." He turned around again to continue his work. It seemed he was in a good mood or something; as he didn't bite Saibara's head off for saying such things. Claire admired the way he held himself back.

"Good morning," she greeted back.

Claire studied him for a while as she got lost in her thoughts; he was certainly a bit muscular wasn't he? With all that hard work he does all day, surely he must have some strength in his arms. Claire pulled her eyebrows together, deep in thought about Gray's strength, while she accepted her payment from Saibara. Maybe she could ask for Gray's help, so that he could get rid of that big stupid rock in the middle of her field. Claire wasn't sure if he could really do it, it was a big rock after all – but then again, he did display signs of strength during their mining trips together.

"Hey, Gray?"

The blond turned around again, holding a smoldering hot tool with some tongs that he took out of the forge. "Yeah?"

"Can I ask a favour of you?" she asked, fiddling with her fingers, hoping he wouldn't deny her request.

Gray placed the tool back into the forge and faced her again. "Sure," he said nonchalantly.

Claire played around with a lock of hair, almost feeling nervous to ask his help. "Could you come by the farm after you're done working?"

"Okay."

Claire smiled. "Thanks! See you then!" She left the blacksmith and went back to her farm.

Claire waited for Gray to show up as she sat on the big rock that she was supposed to be cracking right now. There were two hammers laying on the ground near the rock; obviously she wanted Gray to help her get rid of the damn thing. A few hours later, and Gray finally showed up at her farm. He looked around for any sign of Claire, and she threw up her arms to wave at him and beckoned him to come over.

"So, what is your favour?" he asked as he walked over towards her, carefully avoiding her planted crops.

Claire smiled at him and tapped the rock with the palm of her hand. Gray raised a blond eyebrow at her gesture.

"…What do you want me to do with it?" he asked, unsure what she meant.

She jumped off the rock and picked up a hammer and trusted into his arms. "I want you to smash it!" She wondered if he could really do it though. It was a pretty big rock.

"This rock?"

"Yup, this rock." Claire smiled at him and folded her arms, staring at the rock. "I was cleaning up my field, but I just couldn't get this darn rock to break. So I thought; Gray is pretty strong, right? He could help me smash it, right?"

The slightest hint of a blush crept on Gray's face, but he quickly hid it by pulling down his cap even lower. Claire gave him a small smile and briefly wondered what the UMA letters on his cap meant.

"I think I can try." Was his answer.

Claire clapped her hands and stepped aside to give Gray some room. "Great! Start slamming then!"

The guy picked up the hammer and grabbed it tightly in his hands, then took one big swing at the rock, right in the middle. A few splinters came off on impact. He took another swing and it became a crack. Claire's blue eyes went larger, amazed that he could actually do it.

"Oooh, so you _can_ do it," she said amazed. Gray shot her a dirty look, probably because she underestimated him.

"Go grab that hammer and help me, instead of standing there amazed."

Claire quickly grabbed the other hammer and looked at Gray for further instructions. He scratched the back of his neck, finding it awkward that he had to tell her what to do. "Uhm, go to the other side, and hit it from there. If we hit it both at the same time from a different side, the vibrations will collide .. and .. well it'll break easier."

"Got it."

Together, they smashed up the big rock with a lot of effort. It took them several hours to get it to crumble into pieces that were big enough to be transported off her farm. Claire's hands were numb and tingly; the vibrations from the smashing was a bit too much for her. Her muscles also ached a lot, and her back felt like it was killing her. She laid down on the ground, exhausted from all that working.

"That was a lot of work, my hands hurt so much!" she complained. Claire knew she was going to get blisters in a few hours, her hands were all torn up and red.

Gray sat down next to her as he took off his cap to fan himself. "That was nothing compared to the work my grandfather makes me do," he said and laid down on the ground too, to rest alongside of her.

Claire turned her head to him. "Is it _that_ bad?" she asked, not believing anything could be more painful than this.

He scoffed. "He'll butcher you down until you can't move your whole body anymore! You'll be numb for days, and only _then_ the pain starts to kick in. He really is world's most evil grandfather."

Claire bit her lip. "Your grandfather scares me a little…" she confessed. Saibara really was intimidating for his age, coupled with the fact she always saw him go really hard on Gray.

She heard a chuckle emerge from Gray, who put his cap back on and closed his eyes. "He used to scare me, but not now – now he just pisses me off because he hates everything I make." He sighed. "It doesn't help he's also really good at what he does … and I pale in comparison to him."

Claire stared at his face, did his grandfather's complaining really effect him so much? It couldn't be; Claire saw nothing but a stubborn hard worker in front of her who did his best with everything he had.

"Lately I can't even concentrate enough to do my job…"

He had to stop! He couldn't keep on self-pitying himself when he was nothing but a better worker than her. So before she knew it, Claire was already half-way sitting up to stare him down.

"Well, I think you're great," she said. "When I first came here I was lost; I thought I was screwed over forever. But then I saw you, you worked hard every day – even if your grandfather was hard on you! So I thought, if he's holding it out, then so can I."

Claire realized she had spoken too much when she saw his blue eyes widen with each word she said. Quickly he turned his face away from her and sat up straight. The blonde girl rolled her eyes at herself, thinking it was a stupid idea to reveal so much information about her little admiration of him.

"I-I'm not that great …" he said slowly. "I'm very lazy, and I can't handle criticism well – so I lose my motivation to keep working for the better…"

Claire smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry your grandfather is so hard on you – but I still think you're great. You're always working hard whenever I see you, I think that's admirable."

Gray, refusing to turn around, shifted on his spot. "Isn't it hard to work all alone on this farm?"

Claire stared at the dirt on the ground. "Yeah, it is…But I manage; someone's gotta do it."

"Doesn't it ever wear you down though? I always see you working hard, and I wonder; how does she do it?" Claire's ears perked up; so he thought she worked hard, while she thought he worked hard? Talk about your irony.

"I'm not always working hard," she admitted. "In fact, I screw up a lot. You should have seen the day I bought my two chickens – it was chaos! Chaos I tell you! They're vile, evil creatures who wouldn't stop pecking at my ankles!"

Gray turned around with a slight smile. "Oh yea, well I set fire on the Blacksmith the first day I worked there. I dropped a tool that was hot, and suddenly everything caught on fire. Everyone in town crowded around to see my big mistake. It was so embarrassing."

Her eyes widened and she let out a big laugh. "You really set it on fire? I guess I'm not the only one who screws up from time to time."

He chuckled. "Trust me, I bet I screw up _twice _as much as you do," he said with a sense of truth to his words.

"I don't believe that!" exclaimed Claire, not believing he screwed up as much a she did. She was pretty sure of herself that she made tons of mistakes every day.

Together they kept on sharing their misfortunes together. Claire now knew that Gray had screwed up plenty of times during his apprenticeship. From burning down the Blacksmith to burning his own hand that now showed a faded scar. For some reason, it didn't really made Claire lose her admiration for him, if anything; it rose. Knowing that he was human too, a human that could make mistakes, comforted herself greatly. At least that meant that Claire could strive towards getting better too, even though she could screw up every once in a while. If Gray, a person who screwed up _that much_, could still be really good at what he does – than Claire had nothing to worry about her farm life. She would become better, and she will!

A warm orange glow engulfed the two people sitting in the field. Claire looked at the sky and saw the sun setting in the distance. It was already that late? They must have been talking to each other for hours without realizing. She smiled knowing that time had passed so fast when she was having fun talking to him; time always goes fast when you're having fun.

"The sun is already setting?" said Gray as he stared at the sky too. He slowly got up from the ground and dusted his overalls to get rid of the dirt. "I think it's time for me to go home."

Claire got up too and nodded at him. "Alright then," she said.

Gray scratched the back of his head, his lips turning into a small smile. "You know, you can always ask me for help if you need anything done around here. I don't mind helping you out every once in a while."

She smiled broadly, glad that she had such a nice and caring friend as him. "That's a deal!" she said happily. Her eyes watched Gray leave her farm, then she sighed deeply and started to pick up the small pieces of rocks that she needed to dispose of.


End file.
